Call Number:

MSS.044

Repository:

Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College

Extent:

1 linear ft.

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item or series here], Elias Hicks Manuscript Collection, Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College

Date:

1779-1948 (inclusive) and 1779-1830 (bulk)

Creator:

Ferris, Benjamin, 1780-1867, Fisher, Samuel Rowland, 1745-1834, Hicks, Edward, 1780-1849, Judge, Hugh, 1750?-1834, Mott, James, 1788-1868, Seaman, Valentine, 1770-1817, Seaman, David, 1791-1844, Churchman, George, 1730-1814, Garrigues, Edward, 1756-1845, Kersey, Jesse, 1768-1845, Kimber, Emmor, 1775-1850, McClintock, Thomas, 1792?-1876, Poole, William, 1764-1829, and Shoemaker, Nathan, 1788-1868

Abstract:

Elias Hicks (1748-1830) was an eminent Quaker minister from Jericho, Long Island, N.Y. In the 1820s, a religious controversy within the Society of Friends which focused on Hicks' ministry led to the Hicksite-Orthodox Separation of 1827-1828. The collection includes correspondence written and received by Elias Hicks, sermons, surveyor's drawings, family correspondence, and other papers. Also includes the original 1748-1822 manuscript journal of Elias Hicks (in three parts) and the 1828 Ohio travel journal.

Elias Hicks was born on March 19, 1748, a birthright member of Westbury Monthly Meeting, New York, and the son of John and Martha (Smith) Hicks. At thirteen he went to live with his older brother and was apprenticed to a carpenter. During this time, he became increasingly devoted to religious principles. In 1771, he married Jemima Seaman, the daughter of Jonathan and Elizabeth (Willis) Seaman. He worked as a farmer and partner in a tannery. Elias Hicks was recognized as a minister in 1779 and during the next fifty years made sixty-three visits as a travelling Friend to meetings in the United States. Elias and Jemima had ten children, their four sons tragically dying before maturity of a congenital disorder.

Hicks was a traditional quietist Quaker and opposed to the emerging evangelical emphasis among some Friends. He resisted efforts by London and Philadelphia evangelical Friends to cease his ministry. The controversy in emphasis, with other issues, led the a schism in the Society of Friends in 1827/28. Friends who followed his teachings were labeled "Hicksites" by their opponents, a term that he and they resisted. Elias Hicks died on February 27, 1830, in Jericho, Long Island, New York.

The collection includes: Correspondence written and received by Elias Hicks, sermons, surveyor's drawings, family correspondence, and other papers. Also Includes the original manuscript journal of Elias Hicks, 1748-1822 (in three parts), and the 1828 Ohio travel journal. The papers relate primarily to Hicks' travels in the ministry and to theological controversies within the Religious Society of Friends.